According to National Student Clearinghouse, undergraduate enrollment in traditional information and computer science degrees at four-year institutions fell by 8.1 percent in the fall of 2025 compared to fall 2024. However, at the University, the computer science department has not seen a notable change in enrollment for its bachelors, masters or PhD programs — enrollment dipped for undergraduates in 2024 by 140 students but rose again in 2025 and 2026.
Nationwide, though, a survey done by the Computing Research Association showed that some computer science department heads across universities nationwide believe that this drop in enrollment could be due to concerns about artificial intelligence displacing computer science jobs.
At the University, students can pursue computer science through two undergraduate degree programs. The Department of Computer Science, housed within the School of Engineering and Applied Science, provides the opportunity to earn a bachelor of science in computer science. The College also offers a bachelor of arts in computer science. While students in both programs complete the same foundational courses, the B.S. requires additional science electives, advanced software development work and a fourth year thesis, whereas the B.A. incorporates more coursework from disciplines outside computer science. The department also offers graduate programs including a master of science and a Ph.D. in computer science.
Entering the national conversation on computer science enrollment, Mark Sherriff, University associate department chair of Computer Science, said that fluctuations are not new. Sherriff said computer science has experienced significant increases and decreases in enrollment throughout its history, including surges during the dot-com boom — a time of huge technological change — and at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since enrollment grew so rapidly during those periods, Sherriff said the recent decline may represent a correction from unusually high enrollment rather than a fundamental shift away from computer science. He added that increased competition from other academic programs, particularly the School of Data Science, could also contribute to the decline.
“My biggest hope, I guess, is the fact that our numbers are normalizing,” Sherriff said. “My hope is that we can give more attention to students, better direction, really engage with the tools and what they can be doing, and help [students] be even more productive.”
At the same time, Sherriff said there is a misconception that a computer science degree is becoming less valuable because large language models can now generate code. While coding is part of computer science, he said the foundation of the discipline is problem-solving and understanding the broader systems in which code operates.
Similarly, third-year Engineering student Justin Diamond said that people often misunderstand computer science to just be coding, but in reality that is just a piece of the learning. Diamond said that logic and thinking are important aspects of careers that computer science graduates seek.
“The software engineer [needs] to understand the user's needs and then come up with a plan like an architect [on] how some software feature is going to work,” Diamond said. “The coding is the last part, so [AI] just makes the job easier and faster.”
Computer Science Department Chair Sandhya Dwarkadas said AI therefore functions differently as a tool in computer science than it might in other disciplines. Beyond knowing how to use AI systems, she said that computer scientists need to know how AI works, understand what AI generates and evaluate if AI met the specification given for a task.
To make sure that the computer science degree is adapting to changes with AI, Sherriff said that faculty members meet at various times of the year to discuss the changing landscape and consider curriculum updates.
Dwarkadas and Sherriff agreed that one challenge the department has faced is ensuring students understand fundamental concepts of computer science when AI tools can complete assignments for them. As a result, some courses have shifted away from relying as heavily on experiential learning, including large or design-based projects, and toward more exam-based assessment.
To support this shift, the department piloted a computer-based testing facility located in Gilmer 419A in the spring that has since been used in some introductory computer science courses. According to Computer Science Prof. Briana Morrison, this fall it will be used not only by computer science students, but also other students in the College. Dwarkadas said the facility is isolated from outside digital tools and is monitored, allowing students to sign up to take an exam within a two-week period.
Diamond said that amongst professors, he has noticed they are finding ways to test students’ thinking skills rather than solely technical skills, as students would sometimes resort to AI for technical tasks. According to Diamond, it is becoming increasingly important for students to be able to evaluate code that is already written, as students need to be able to differentiate between well and poorly written code. As a teaching assistant for CS 2100 “Data Structures and Algorithms 1,” Diamond said that in addition to responsibilities such as grading work and exams, the class’s TAs make students answer additional questions about the work they submit to prove their comprehension of the content.
For entry-level jobs in 2024, computer science and computer engineering faced an unemployment rate of seven percent and 7.8 percent, respectively, which was higher than the unemployment rate of recent college graduates at 4.2 percent. Dwarkadas said it is difficult to know how that is affecting University Computer Science alumni because responses to University career surveys — which collect data regarding students’ post-graduate jobs — have been low over the past few years.
Dwarkadas said she worries students take too much advice from media “hype,” that AI is taking over computer science jobs, which she said is often built off of misconceptions.
“I would say that students shouldn't shy away from a field because of hype,” Dwarkadas said. “If [computer science] is their passion, they should be there and they will be needed.”
Sherriff similarly said he cautioned against interpreting the large numbers of job applications that students report they have to submit as evidence that computer science jobs have disappeared. He said he often hears students say they have submitted hundreds of applications without receiving an offer, but argued that one-click applications through platforms like LinkedIn are not adequate substitutes for job applications. According to Sherriff, charts with those application rates create false alarms for students because the numbers are inflated.
Diamond said that just because the entry level job market is changing for computer science graduates, that does not mean the market is dead because of AI.
“Companies are still looking for people to do technical work, so people should just go into the major if they're interested in it. I don't think people should be discouraged because you can make the same argument about any job with AI,” Diamond said.
As AI becomes more integrated into industries, Dwarkadas said that she expects knowledge of AI to become relevant well beyond the computer science department. Both Dwarkadas and Sherriff said that they are currently in the proposal process of creating AI minors that would be available to students across the University.
Lidia Zur Muhlen is a staff writer for the news desk and frequently covers artificial intelligence for The Cavalier Daily. She is a third-year student pursuing an interdisciplinary course of study examining the politics, ethics and economics of emerging technologies.
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